Dreams Can Come true
by XboxArcher
Summary: When there is a horrible accident at the university, what will Raj do? WARNING: Character death.
1. The Unexpected

**I think the title really explains what is going to happen... **

**WARNING: character death**

**Disclaimer: The usual stuff**

It was a regular day at the university, Sheldon was complaining about the newest comic not being up to his usual standard, Raj was fantasising about Bernadette and Leonard was eating but zoned out so he didn't hear anything that Sheldon was saying, this was usually the best way to eat lunch with him.

"Yep, I'm definitely not gay..." The usual comment from Raj before he went back to his pudding.

"As I was saying, Batman would never say anything like that, it's just not in his character!" Even though no one had been listening to Sheldon he had raved on and on for a good five minutes.

"Sorry Sheldon? What were you saying?" Leonard snapped out of his trance as he noticed that Sheldon had finished and said what he really shouldn't have.

"Well if you're not going to have the decency to listen the first time I don't see much point in repeating myself. Maybe I'll just have to find some new friends who want to listen to me." and he stood up and walked away.

"Should we go after him?" Raj asked but he didn't seem too bothered.

"Nah, he'll bounce back, he always does, I sleep in the same apartment as he does, he can't avoid me forever." Leonard focused back on his lunch. It wasn't too bad today, a little lacking in it's usual standards, but not awful.

"Ooh! Chocolate chips!" Raj exclaimed as he took another bite from his chocolate cake.

"Don't they always have chocolate chips?" Leonard looked at him patronisingly over the top of his glasses.

"Not always, today must be a really good day." He looked at his next mouthful, examining it for more chocolate chips. There was a slightly awkward silence for a couple of minutes before Sheldon reappeared again.

"Turns out everyone else in this place is a complete ass, no one wants to be friends with me... I wonder why that is?" he said as he put his tray back in it's previous place, and sat down to continue eating.

"Well it could be the fact that you're an annoying robot man who always has to get what he wants and you never thinks about anyone else but yourself." Leonard said simply and raised an eyebrow.

"There's no need to be harsh about it, I'm admittedly a little pushy but I'm not that bad." Sheldon said back a little offended. Leonard raised both his eyebrows in shock and looked at Sheldon with complete amazement.

"Dude, he's right. You're an awful person, we only hang out with you because Leonard would be homeless if we didn't." Raj said through a mouthful of pudding. And it was true, all of them were sick to the stomach with Sheldon, they wanted an excuse to ditch him as soon as possible.

"How long do you reckon Howard's gonna be? He's gonna miss the whole of lunch if he doesn't hurry up." Leonard wanted to change the subject as soon as possible and this seemed like the best way to change it.

"You can't just change the subject like that, this is a serious situation, we need to talk about it!" Sheldon said in surprise, he had no idea what he had done wrong, he was just behaving normally.

"What's to talk about, you're an annoying bastard and we would rather be friends with Kripke that you. End of." Leonard picked up his tray to to give back the cutlery... then the fire alarm went off.

"What? What's going on? That noise hurts my ears! Make it stop!" Sheldon put his hands over his ears to try and block the noise of the bell out, he was pulled up by Raj.

"Dude! We gotta get out of here! That bell means get out!" and with that he ran to join Leonard who was already halfway out the door.

"Wish I had one for the apartment for Penny." Sheldon remarked before he too made his way to the door. There was such a strong tide of people that he had trouble actually getting somewhere, and the fact that he couldn't remember what the assembly point was really didn't help, he just thought it best to follow everyone else.

When they were all outside and waiting for Howard, Bernadette and Amy joined them.

"Where's my Howie? Is he alright?" Bernadette asked with tears in her eyes.

"I'm sure he's fine, he's just held up." Leonard was trying to be comforting but even he couldn't hide the fear in his voice, he was sure of it, he had that horrible feeling in his gut that he only got when something really bad had happened or he had eaten too much Thai food. Then a fireman walked over to the group.

"Leonard Hoffsteader?" (Sorry if I spelt it wrong)

"Yeah? That's me." and he followed the fireman away from the group, what he heard next made his stomach plummet into his shoes. He walked back to the group with his head facing the floor to mask his eyes, no matter how hard he tried he couldn't stop himself from letting tears flood down his cheeks.

"Leonard? What's wrong?" Raj asked

"It was Howard that caused the explosion, they couldn't find the body, I'm sorry Bernadette, he's gone..." Leonard put a hand on her shoulder as she cried into Raj.

"Well, what an unfortunate turn of events! I wonder who's gonna die next?" Sheldon seemed amused by this, like it was all a prank.

"Sheldon! Do you even realise what's happening here? Howard's dead! Do you not understand that? Is this all some kind of a joke to you?" Raj yelled at him, it was not like Raj to get angry, but something was wrong with him. He wasn't crying either, to him, this was a dream, Howard was gone and Bernadette was his for the taking, things were too perfect... something was bound to go wrong sooner or later.

**I hope you like this chapter! Review and tell me what you thought! It's really late here so sorry if it's bad. **


	2. Howard's Place

**Howard's gone and Sheldon is being an ass... lets continue.**

Raj comforted Bernadette in the back of the car while Leonard drove everyone back to his apartment, there was a palpable silence. You would have had trouble cutting it with a chainsaw let alone a knife.

"So what are you going to be doing on this 'anything can happen Thursday'?" Sheldon's pathetic attempt at a conversation starter was replied to by,

"Mourning over the death of my Howie! What else you fucking idiot!" Bernadette snapped, she had had just about enough of the paranoid germ freak and she just wanted to try and calm down without his dulcet tones in her ears.

"There's no need to be like that! I only asked... don't need to get snippy about it." Sheldon muttered, but Leonard heard him.

"Well you wouldn't understand this situation would you? Your just an emotionless robot man that only thinks about himself and you don't have the decency to think about others for once in your life!You are so self centred Sheldon!" Sheldon was a little taken aback by this outburst.

"Well you could have told me this a while ago, that way I could have made myself more 'Leonard friendly'. You're so picky." Sheldon shifted in his seat, there was still the chance that he could be made to walk home.

"Actually Sheldon... we all felt like that, you always got what you wanted regardless of what we wanted, and you always killed the fun by making sure everything was explained and safe, you never let any of us do anything we wanted because you wanted to do it then pussed out at the last minute." Raj stuck up for Leonard, because it was true, they all despised Sheldon.

"Oh, I never knew I was that bad. Sorry guys! Now what night is it? Thai or Chinese?" He went straight back to food.

"Do you not care about Howard you inconsiderate dick?" Bernadette was getting seriously pissed off.

"I did, when he was alive, but now he's dead my care has died with him." and he turned back to the front. Bernadette just stared at the back of his head, tears still pouring down her face. But she had the satisfaction of knowing that no woman would ever be able to love him.

A few minutes later Bernadette manages to say

"Can I go to Howard's place? Just one last time?" she had to stop there as she was beginning to hyperventilate.

"Sure, I think it would be nice for us to go to his house and pay our respects, and tell his mother if she doesn't already know." Leonard shot a dirty look in Sheldon's direction.

"Well it is the customary thing to do I suppose." Sheldon gave in, but not easily.

"Good, now be aware, Howard's mum can be unpredictable at the best of times..." Leonard shuddered at the thought of what they were about to do.

**-They pull up outside-**

"Right, we all know what to do, and Sheldon... try to be sympathetic. Or as close to sympathetic as you can be." Leonard would have to settle with what he could get. On that final thought he knocked on the door.

"Who's there! Are you a sex criminal?" Mrs Wolowitz's voice was easily recognised.

"No Mrs Wolowitz, it Leonard, Raj, Sheldon and Bernadette, can we come in?" Raj was still holding Bernadette close, he wanted this to last as long as possible.

"Well I'm busy! Can you come back another time?" She didn't sound busy...

"Get out the way, Howard gave me a spare key In case he ever left his in his room." Bernadette pushed through the boys and took out her spare key and unlocked the door. The entire group walked in and as soon as the door was shut Mrs Wolowitz kicked off.

"I thought I told you I was busy! All of you get the fuck out of my house! Howard isn't here so you have no business being here! I have no time to entertain guests! I have ironing to do and then I have to have Howard massage my varicose veins!" (They swell up and it looks really gross!) Sheldon just stared at the closed door that the voice was emanating from with mild surprise.

"Well that was unnecessary..." he turned around to face Bernadette,

"Lets get this over with, I'm hungry and it's Thai night. I can't eat after 7 or I don't sleep properly." He didn't seem to care at all about Howard, proves he's not a very good friend.

"Sheldon... Go outside and wait in the car... before I tear your mother fucking head off!" Bernadette was getting seriously pissed with Sheldon and she was about to snap.

"Language! There is no need for that!" Sheldon recoiled,

"There's every need for it now get out!" Bernadette was starting to go red in the face.

"Fine, if you don't want me here, then I suppose I'll go home... Leonard can you drive me home?" Sheldon looked awkwardly in his direction.

"What do you think dumbass? Go and sit in the bloody car..." Leonard turned away as a new wave of tears came over him, Sheldon slunk out the door and closed it behind him.

"Shall we go and see? Y'know, his room?" Raj pointed in the general direction of Howard's room.

"Yeah, lets go say goodbye." Bernadette hung her head and was lead to the room by Raj, who still wasn't crying...

As the trio entered the room and looked around, everything was as it was, nothing had changed. The porno magazines just visible under his bed and the lightsabers crossed on the wall. Like it was just waiting for him to come home and start up his laptop... his laptop. Leonard walked over to the desk and opened it up. Maybe there was some clue as to why he had caused an explosion.

"Guys... look at this..." Leonard pointed to a video that was still on screen. It was Howard.

"Guys, I know you're watching this... I just want to say what great friends you've been to me over the years, and I know Sheldon isn't with you at the minute, he wouldn't have made it into my room." He chucked before continuing

"Well I just wanna say that as you're watching this the experiment obviously didn't go to plan, I knew it was a risk but it was one that I was willing to take. It could have me and Bernadette so happy..." He bowed his head.

"Oh Howie..." Bernadette started crying again into Raj, he was finally realising what was going on.

"Anyway, to business, Raj, I know all the time I've been with Bernadette your desire for her has grown, and I just wanna say that now I'm gone... she's yours. Providing that she wants you of course... But Bernadette, I just want you to know... I love you, I love you more than anyone else in my life and I would never do anything to make you upset or do anything that you wouldn't like. You are my everything and I am so sorry that I had to leave you like this... I never wanted to hurt you, I never wanted this to happen but my time was obviously now... I'm sorry." And with that the video ended and the group stared at the blank screen.

"Wow, he really did care..." Leonard stood up and walked over to the bed, put a hand on the sheets and whispered,

"I'll miss you buddy, save a spot on the cool table for me." And he walked out the door, when he was just out of earshot he let go, tears poured down his face as he sobbed silently in the hall. He had always been the emotional one, he had just never shown it, he was too vulnerable as it is.

Back in Howard's room, Bernadette and Raj still stood in silence, they had gripped each other tightly as they had watched the video and through the whole thing Bernadette had been shaking like a leaf, but she had stopped for a few minutes after the message had ended. Raj turned his head and looked at the top of her head, she looked up into his eyes and whispered one thing,

"Do it..." And as their lips met they fell onto Howard's bed and were lost in their own thoughts and desires.

**That's the end of the second chapter... hope you liked it and please review and tell me what you thought! **


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